This session will present how I address one of the major goals of a liberal arts education: to enhance the individual’s capacity for critically assessing the quality of one’s own thinking and how it may impact others. I will introduce and explain how I integrated social justice into an English writing class. This approach to composition empowers students to gain a more comprehensive understanding of poverty, privilege, race, and social status through the perspective of others and allows them to examine their own thinking as well. This lesson plan is designed to build comprehension skills through engagement with multiple forms of media, as well as develop and strengthen critical thinking skills that promote analysis and reflection to improve communication skills and enhance leadership characteristics needed to successfully engage with a global society. I asked students to write reflections about specific social justice issues based on readings and class discussions. Students also completed in-class activities, which helped them become more aware of social justice issues which affect them and other Americans. Students demonstrated awareness and verification that justice issues are relevant, important and are not easily resolved. They also noted their own self-awareness of prejudices and stereotypes, which they had never considered. A liberal arts education at university must include learning that empowers students and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It provides students with broad knowledge of the wider world as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest. A liberal arts education helps students develop a sense of social responsibility, as well as strong and transferable intellectual and practical skills such as communication, analytical and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.

The workshop details the prospectus and annotated bibliography assignment, which has long proven a best practice for guiding students to engage in their own learning during the research paper process. Goals for workshop participants are twofold: to understand how the assignment is valuable to enhance student learning and to try it out in their own disciplines. Participants will be provided with copies of the assignment. Then we will relate it to each of the criteria in the AAC&U Critical Thinking VALUE rubric, pairing each of the five criteria in the rubric with a question in the prospectus assignment. During the discussion we will link to the stages in the writing process, detailing how every stage of the process—including brainstorming, research, and planning, which are included in this assignment—can be taught, but that the writing stage cannot be taught, making the assignment an even more valuable tool for promoting engaged student learning. To shape the revision stage, we will discuss how the prospectus can be rearranged; and we will discuss why the editing stage should be postponed. To complete the discussion of the writing process, we will explore the rhetorical principles of audience, purpose, and occasion and how they affect the publishing stage, but must be considered early on. I will share feedback about the assignment from my students, who are at various levels of writing. In addition to discussion and question and answer, audience involvement will include brainstorming how the assignment can be used in different disciplines with and without adaption. Finally, all participants will have the opportunity to try out the prospectus assignment to start engaging in their own academic project or one that they are considering for their students. Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2009). Critical Thinking VALUE Rubric. Retrieved from https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/critical-thinking